Diet and food

We were talking about how when I diet, I go crazy and start into a cooking frenzy. I don't necessarily eat it all, I cook to feed other people.

Tonight husband was packing away the side of lamb I bought, and found some offcuts, chunks of meat. He then mentioned how he was craving a lamb stew, without the tomatoes I've been putting in everything lately. So I rose to the challenge and searched my recipe books, depending on time I'll be making that stew tomorrow.

Tonight I did a potato dauphinois with roast lamb and other roast vegetables. To make space in the freezer for husband I made strawberry sauce with frozen strawberries from last year's shopping bargains. The strawberries will take up less space in jars in the cupboard than in punnets in the freezer.

Food - I can't stop. But tonight when I got hungry, I just had another serve of my breakfast muesli.

I'm highly motivated to continue dieting but I have to keep remembering to take my vitamins.

The diet - it's a month now, and I've lost 5 Kg. That's the fastest and most consistent weight loss I've had for decades. I really think the Reductil is the only reason this is working so well. True, I have to cut back ridiculously with food, but I'm still trying to keep some sort of balance. A dietician would want me to eat more bread, potatoes, pasta etc but I know my body, and I think the food pyramid is skewed too much towards carbs.

Now for the science lesson.
Our bodies need a range of things from our food. Carbohydrates, protein, fat, various trace minerals and vitamins. We evolved to a hunter-gatherer lifestyle & diet, where we'd get occasional big lumps of meat plus a steady trickle of harvested food such as berries, seeds, roots, leaves, plants, small critturs. We also would have got a lot of exercise getting our food.

Now in modern times our food is easier to get. We also don't have to eat it raw or whole. Our grains are husked and polished, often ground, bleached, sifted, added to, mixed with a lot of other highly refined and processed stuff until it bears little resemblance to the food our digestive systems were designed to handle.

Think about sugar - it's so easy to get now, it's in almost everything we buy that's processed. But in the wild, sugar is IN other things. It has other components to it chemically, or it has to be physically extracted with effort. It's not so readily available.

Food groups.http://users.rcn.com/jkimball.ma.ultranet/BiologyPages/C/Carbohydrates.html
Carbohydrates are called that because chemically they all have the same proportion of carbon, hydrogen and oxygen. Water is H2O. Carbohydrates have always got hydrogen and oxygen in water-like proportions. There are also the same number of carbon atoms as oxygen atoms.
Pure glucose is C6-H12-O6. If you juggle the atoms around a bit you can get, with the same formula, fructose (fruit sugar) and galactose (milk sugar). More complex sugars are built from blocks of these sugars. Sugars are soluble in water.

More complexity again comes when sugars are joined into long chains and other structures composed of many sugars. These are the starches and they are insoluble in water. Plants make glucose but store it as starch. Think of a potato plant - it makes glucose through photosynthesis, but stores what it makes in the large tubers under the ground. We dig these up, cook them and eat them. Classic comfort food, because our bodies an fairly easily digest them - we break down the longer molecules into water-soluble sugars and eventually into glucose, which our cells use as an energy source.
Not all carbs can be so easily broken down - not in human stomachs, anyway. Cellulose, which is the fibrous stuff used to keep cell walls in plants rigid, is still strictly a carb, but our bodies can't digest it. Horses can, but not too efficiently (which is why their poop is still so full of undigested straw). Cows and sheep do it better, because they have extra stomachs loaded with friendly bacteria to do a lot of the digestion for them. Various animals have all developed interesting ways to help them digest cellulose. I won't go into detail, a lot of these are gross.

Glucose that trickles in from a sustained-release kind of supply keeps our bodies ticking over at a fairly steady rate. However, eating sweet things especially if we binge on them is giving our bodies a sudden sugar 'hit' which then causes the pancreas to respond by releasing a lot of insulin, which we use to help our cells access the glucose. If the pancreas learns to over-react, eventually the cells get too accustomed to high insulin levels and it stops working so well. We then need to secrete more of it to get the same result. Eventually it can stop working entirely, or the pancreas can stop producing insulin, and then we have diabetes Type II.

We also get our energy from fat. All oils are fats too. It's just a matter of what temperature they are, as to whether they're liquid or not. Make it cold enough, all oils will solidify. Fat produces a different kind of energy, it's more concentrated. In really cold countries the diet is often high in fat because it keeps them going better, often on less food. Eventually, the fat gets broken down into glucose and our cells can then use it. And the reverse happens - if we have too much glucose in our blood and our cells have all they need for now, thank you very much, the excess doesn't get wasted, it gets converted into fat for storage. It gets "waisted" instead.

We also use some fats to make hormones. We need a certain amount of cholesterol for this, but our bodies can make all we need, we don't need to eat cholesterol to have enough. Our bodies break down old red blood cells and recycle the old haemoglobin into bile salts. From there we make cholesterol. Cholesterol ONLY comes from animal sources. So when you see a bottle of olive oil labelled "cholesterol-free" then the manufacturer is trying to treat you like an idiot. ALL vegetable-source oils are cholesterol-free. Almost all are monosaturates or polyunsaturates - good oils. Coconut oil and cocoa butter are exceptions. Also a tip - the more saturated a fat is, the higher its melting point. In other words, if it's liquid at fairly cool room temperatures, it's likely to be better for you.

The body will happily burn any kind of fat. But some fats get put in places which can make us sick. That's why we should substitute mono- or poly-unsaturated fats for the unhealthy kind.

Protein - it's what our muscles are made of. Also it's what the muscles of animals are made of, which is why we eat meat (unless we're vegetarian). There are also some non-animal sources of protein, but they're not so rich. You can also get protein in eggs and milk.
We can burn protein and convert it to glucose. People who starve themselves are often burning their own body muscles purely to keep their cells alive. This process also causes a build up of ketones in the body as a by-product, which is why a lot of dieters have bad breath. You can smell the ketones on them.

Other body processes work best when they have various minerals and vitamins in trace amounts. We need iron to make enough haemoglobin, for example. Without it we get anaemic and very tired because not enough oxygen is getting to our cells.

So in a healthy diet, we need a balance. In a weight-reducing diet, or the diet of anyone who wants to get back to the sort of diet our bodies are designed for, we substitute back to the more primitive foods. Brown rice. Lots of seed foods (beans, lentils, grains). Not too many nuts because you can easily get your daily allowance of oils that way. If the carbs you eat contain more cellulose, it just goes through you as fibre and doesn't get converted to glucose. But it still makes you feel full. That's why a lot of health foods for fibre include the stuff we usually throw away - bran, for example.
And the oils - while we might eat a certain amount of fat in our meat, back in the days when we hunted our meat, the animals also had to work harder. They weren't cosseted, fed and fattened up the way they are on our farms today. Animals in past millennia would have been leaner. Less animal fat to ingest, and also a lifestyle where we burnt up most of it anyway.
In Australia we can buy kangaroo meat. It's very rich in iron and is amazingly lean. You can't cosset a kangaroo, they're just too active.

Anyway, that's the quick lesson in diet and how our bodies use our food.

Armed with this, it's easier to understand the importance of those nutrition labels on our food.

LOL, thank you. For the new thread and the science lesson. I am afraid at the moment I have an issue with my vision, so I will be back....but, I did get as far as the feeding other people. Yup, thats me, except my kids are not eaters. SO I very often am dragging food off to other people andbegging to schedule potlucks etc so I can bring food. LOL.

Great info Marg! I really believe in the balance diet thing. When I first joined WW many years ago before points they really preached the importance of balance. I think it is one reason I've been able to keep off most of the original weight I lost.

I think the "balance" is one of the things that folks who are overweight deal with. I know for me, the reality of a true portion and the five servings of fruits and veggies a day was a real adjustment.

I think if you understand the balance you avoid the pitfalls of yoyo weight loss/gain and live a healthier life.

Sharon, I've understood the balance for years, but still had trouble with my weight creeping back on unless I diet really drastically. I suspect it's because I over-dieted when I was younger, because I've always been heavy for my size. What I mean is, I was slim with a good figure, LOOKED normal weight, but according to all the charts i was overweight. So I dieted,when I really didn't need to. For me, my weight has always been more than people expected. I would see doctors as part of a routine check and without even looking up from the notes, they would tell me I was overweight. If oonly they had looked at me, I might have been spared a lot of grief now.

Plus, the range of what was considered overweight back in the late 70s has now been revised upwards. We have more sophisticated ways of assessing a person's acceptable weight. Mind you, I still think they don't get it quite right for people with my proportions. And yes, I am definitely overweight now, by any standards. But I can meet a woman who weighs the same as me and is the same height, but she can't fit into my clothes, while hers would swim on me.

Few women my weight can still buy all their clothes off the rack. It's weird, I really wish I could beat a few doctors over the head with my weight chart. As for the "all you need to do is reduce your calories enough and eventually your intake will be low enough to lose weight" - yeah, true. But I know from experience, that I can't cut calories low enough and still eat a balanced diet. And thanks to me new CSIRO diet book, I understand why - because it's MALE doctors who keep saying this, and due to various differences especially hormonal, a man doing the same job and getting the same exercise as a woman will still burn up far more calories than she does. It's just not fair! Maybe that's why so many male doctors seem to think it's easy to lose weight, and treat us overweight women like brain-dead lazy losers.

Getting into the habit of eating a healthy variety of foods, especially if you prepare them yourself as much as possible (and I don't mean microwaving a packet of something) is a really good start to a healthier lifestyle. But sometimes it's still not enough.

Maybe that's why I begin to get obsessed with food - I'm trying to find tastier ways to have variety, within healthy parameters. Maybe the warning sign to my family, that I'm on a serious diet, is a fridge full of leftovers!

OK lets see, um, my doctor office when they told me my new health problem said eat "x" exchanges from this group and x from this group and x from this group- and I really had no idea what they were exactly talking about......I mean I pretty much know the food groups- but, I did not know what an e xchange was.....not exactly, and darn docs office was not willing to explain, said they would mail me something, and they said keep it at or under 1200 calories. (remember they gave me the news I had these health problems by assuming I already knew and chastising me nastily for my neglect and abuse? GRRR)

SO I had to refamiliarize myself with food groups, becuz I had NEVER had these types of health/nutrition issues before, altho I have NEVER been thin- and I had never dieted. Now I am begginning to realize, it IS hard to eat the amounts from the food groups they told me to eat AND stay under 1200 calories. I can get my vegs in there fine, usually, but the grains/cereals group is harder for me.

Well, then I was waiting and waiting and waiting for the darn stuff to come in the mail from doctor, thank goodness I went and bought some nutrition books on my own right away, becuz I do not know what docs office did, but it took a little over a week for me to get what they mailed. and when I got it? ALL they sent me was one page of a sample one week diet of all meals for the week, at a total of 1500 calories a day and they had all kinds of things on there that I thought were dumb. They told me restrict sodium and sugar and fats..they had 12 saltine crackers as a snack more than twice on that one week sample menu. I do not see anything all so beneficial in saltine crackers. There was NOTHING else there, just the dumb 1500 calorie sample menu. NO info on food groups or the exchanges they spoke of and this was more than how many calories they had told me.

I have been too nervous to even TRY to eat ready made foods etc.....so I have been makeing everything fresh from scratch by my own hand. I have a few guidelines I am sticking to for now...3 ounces of fish or skinless boneless white meat chicken per day. (usually dinner) I am supposed to do I think docs office said 5 grain/cereal (I do have what they said written down in kitchen) BUT I am haveing difficulty with my illness and wheat-----so have been experimenting with oats, barley, brown rice. SO far I have NOT been able to get that much in me in one day. I am allowed one fruit exchange a day- which I think might mean a serving? SO I MEASURE everything. I often split my one fruit between breakfast and dinner. I eat salad for lunch.....spinach, chard, kale, romaine, lettuces, cauliflower, broccoli, cabbages....uusally raw, sometimes parts cooked (steamed) added in....and usually with vinegar and garlic to jazz it up. (the vinegar is for ?blood pressure and so is the garlic, IIRC)
I use cinaminn on breakfast as weell, no sugar, just cinamin. If I have oats, they are not instant and not quick type, made with water and cinn. The cinnamin is for blood sugar.
I have my 3 ounces of fish or chicken for dinner (alternate) and have been experimenting with various herbs and use a lot of celery (for blood pressure) and some bell peppers and small amounts of carrots...and always 2 vegs for dinner, too. Again, eexperimenting. Somewhere thru the day I add maybe 5-10 almonds of walnuts (I did not like walnuts as much) Before I go to bed, I have maybe 4 ounces of nonfat plain yogurt or 4 ounces of skim milk. I also check to see what I may still need out of the food groups- and check my calories total for day to see what is what and sometimes I have a small snack.
The hardest part for me is that I always ate based on what I craved, and I always usually ate once a day, dinner. And I LOVE cheese.
My weight is NOT coming off very well, but, hey Marg! Yesterday when I weighed myself the scale DID register some loss!!!!! YAY! Maybe 5 pounds! (I will confirm today to see if the loss still registers) And my blood pressure has come down nicely, I check that daily as well as weight.
Marg, I did not yet try the ginger, my kids requested "Mexican" for dinner yesterday, so I made chicken with peppers and onions and stirred salsa ingrediants into brown rice, I had a small (not the supersized rounds) tortilla with chicken and raw shredded cabbage on mine with a dab of my nonfat plain yogurt, (so I wound up haveing broccoli and water before bed, LOL) and I had a tablespoon of mashed pintos. Later I had foodnetwork on and was LOL becuz Bobby Flay made tacos and he also used the chicken and cabbage, LOL. My kids were teaseing me for useing cabbage and husband did not like the cabbage on them, but I did. LOL. BUT maybe next time I might skip the tortilla, I am not sure.
tonite is fish, so my kids who do not like fish so far all told me they are finding somewhere else to eat tonite. Boogers, I told them we have a whole fridge full of yummy food.

Congrats on the loss - and five pounds is not a small loss, that's 2.5 Kg! It took me over two weeks to lose that much, with extreme diet plus the diet pills. I hope the scales continue to say that's hoe much you lost. When mine seem to show a sudden drop, I re-zero them (digital scales) and try again. I also weight myself at the same time every morning, naked, after going to the loo but before I eat breakfast.

If you're having fish tonight, why not try teriyaki fish parcels? it's really easy and it gives you a chance to try the ginger. If you make your picky eaters have a taste, they may decide they like it. We don't batter or flour our fish any more. husband doesn't want it as a fish parcel, so he pan-fries his fish fillets in a scrape of butter.

if you're having a whole fish, the same recipe works, you just need a bigger piece of aluminium foil. A lot of Westerners put lemon in the cavity of a whole fish - with this recipe, you put shallots and ginger in and on the fish.

You make up a teriyaki marinade - any leftover can go in the freezer, there's enough salt,sugar in it to stop it going solid (but in the amount you use, not enough to muck up your diet).

Now for fish, add a few drops of sesame oil (if you have it)
Thin slices of ginger root - leave in slices or cut into slivers, as you choose
shredded shallots/spring onions - save most of this for AFTER cooking as a garnish

To prepare - place the fish on a large square of aluminium foil. Tuck a slice or two of ginger under the fish and a few more on top of the fish. Splash on some teriyaki mix, about a teaspoon total. carefully wrap up the fish into a neat parcel, being careful to keep the folds etc on the top so the marinade won't leak. Put the foil parcel carefully on an oven tray. Do one parcel for each person who is having it this way, then bake in a moderate oven until it's done - it depends on how big the parcel is and how thick the fish is. It might only need about fifteen minutes, or it could need a little longer. You can always open the parcel a little at the top to see if it's gone completely opaque yet. Or you can put the parcel in a hot pan on the stove and cook it that way.

To serve - put the parcel on a plate for each person to open themselves, or open it up, serve onto a plate, pour over the juices (there will now be a lot more, it's come from the fish) and garnish with the shredded shallots.

It's really simple, tastes delicious. You can eat the ginger if you want, or leave it. It will have given a little flavour to the fish but with nothing hot. The ginger itself - it will taste a bit 'hot' still, it will still be partly crunchy.

Leftover marinade - you can use it on fish, or chicken next time. For chicken, you can do a marinade with less mirin and a spoonful of honey. Check by taste if you need to add more soy to balance it. Also with chicken - chopped garlic works wonderfully as well.

Enjoy!

To get a good range of food groups into you and still stick to your diet - how about making yourself some minestrone soup? You can go easy on the pasta, and if you add some freshly shredded basil leaves right before serving, you will get a fabulous flavour kick. You can also top it with a very small amount of freshly grated parmesan, to help you with your cheese craving.

When we're having tacos, I use a basic bolognese meat sauce (I add a bit of Tabasco for those who like it spicy), put grated cheddar on that, then shredded lettuce and then chopped tomato. Sour cream in there for easy child 2/difficult child 2 and anyone else who isn't watching their weight.

Your diet from the doctors - the reason the saltine crackers are there, is to give you some carbs and to also give you something to put your other food groups on. And that's where I cut back. But that's me, and my metabolism. I know I do better on fewer carbs. If you skip some or all of the saltines, you can always go back later and eat one as a snack if you get really ravenous.

It's like, if I get really hungry, no matter what time of day, I will go have another small serve of my muesli.

Sounds to me like they've given you the standard diet peddled by the dieticians. The saltines do sound a better choice than bread. When I followed the dietician's diet that required me to eat more bread than I had been, that is when I gained weight.

The problem with eating what you crave, is that sometimes we crave foods that are not good for us. With food sensitivities you can either feel sick with a food that doesn't agree with you, or the opposite - you can get a craving. My nephew who had a problem with yeast always craved Vegemite sandwiches. It was all he would eat. My sister tried to use aversion therapy on him, made him eat nothing but Vegemite sandwiches for every meal. After two weeks and he was still enjoying it, she gave up. Vegemite is based on yeast, in its manufacture. It's fabulous for dieters because it's got tons of flavour but virtually no calories and no fat. Loads of salt, though. But since it's supposed to be eaten SPARINGLY, it's not too bad for you even on a low salt diet, if you eat it the right way.
Us Aussies cringe when we see people unfamiliar with Vegemite who pile it on thick like you would peanut butter or jam. It's a fast way to make yourself sick. Vegemite is supposed to be a very thin scrape across the bread (or cracker - it's fabulous with saltines). You should be still able to see the bread or the cracker, under the Vegemite.
I remember when I was little and had been sick, off my food and only allowed water or flat lemonade, the first food I was allowed to have when I was back on solids would be a cracker with a thin smear of Vegemite. It tasted so good, after all that sweet lemonade. I would be craving salt by then, craving something savoury, and it was just perfect.
Now if I'm recovering from a tummy bug, I will sometimes have home-made chicken stock as a savoury alternative. The kids still want their Vegemite, though.

I'm sure that if they had Vegemite back in the days of the pharoahs they would have found jars of it in King Tut's tomb, still tasting just as good as when it was interred. The stuff doesn't go off. Not ever.

LOL, yup, thats how and when I weigh myself too, LOL. Even then I find it fluctuates, but I thought that seemed the best time to weigh in. And yeah, it took me 2 weeks, too. Is that becuz of insulin resistance? Is the reductil giving you any adverse effects at this time?
I have been making the fishes a variety of ways, usually just doing whatever sounds good as I go along, LOL. We had orange roughy last nite and for a change, I made it very plain, just put it by itself in oven, and it was SOOOO yummy. I DID use the ginger-- on carrots, LOL (and we had lemoned asparagus) . The ginger reminded me of lemon. I came in end of yesterday very low calorie wise...partly due to the fish I chose for last nite, and had early spring greens with vinegar for lunch, but this morning I am trying to figure out why I am haveing symptoms of my illness pop in strong. Nothing I ate yesterday should be causeing this, I checked and double checked. The only thing I can think of now is we have a t storm brewing. <sigh> LOL, I cannot control the weather, LOL.
The fish parcels with ginger does sound yummy, but I have been staying away from soy. I have made "parcels" of a variety of foods before, and maybe I will try this - maybe with salmon ? It does sound good. I like minsetrone soup- I like most soups, but, I never feel like I ate anything when I eat soup, no matter how bulky the soup is. - so I have been steering clear. About the saltines? They were listed as just by themself, with milk, for snack. THis weird sample menu docs office sent me also had MAYO on it in what I thought to be rather high amounts all thru the week, most of the time at lunch. It was far more than I would use even if I were not paying any attention to what I was eating. Very odd sample menu, in my opinion.
I do not really like breads much, and yeast and me do not get along very well. (I have wondered about candida?)
I have not liked the ground turkey some use as a substitute for hamburger meat, so I have been making marinara sauce ---at the moment I am stuck in a want for good old VERY fattening mac and cheese. I also always served spaghetti on Tuesdays.......and the kids are wanting that, so I might make some with some special pasta I got, meatless.....with a very very very large salad for me to go with a small serving of spaghetti. I am also going to use this spaghetti squash I bought...never had it before, will check it out.
Last nite Alton Brown made brown rice on Food Network, I was chuckling at his timeliness. He put his in the oven to cook it since it takes so long, said it does not scorch that way.

Ah the eating by cravings....I fell into that, would sometimes even crave things I did not even like, LOL. I did not really often crave things that were too unhealthy.....Really I just never gave much thought to food. And if I did not crave, I did not bother to eat. But when I did eat, I truly always enjoyed what I ate. I attach such a strong celebratory and social thing to food and eating. BUT I am trying to alter that whole mindset some.
You had asked about cooking frenzy? I am not exactly in a cooking frenzy, but.....
I used to eat once a day and am now sitting down and haveing 4 small mini meals, so I feel like I am always eating, and I AM always planning the next "meal" - useing all my various books, pen and paper, sitting in kitchen checking and double checking food groups, benefits and pitfalls of various foods, seeking ideas that catch my interest......and then REALLY being involved with the meal I am eating at the time, TRYNIG to pay attention to when I have had my fill...becuz again, I never paid much attention to if I felt satisfied, I always simply cleared my plate and ate everything. (yes, I am useing smaller dishes, and measureing EVERYTHING I put on my plate)
You have your meusli, I have not yet settled on one thing or a couple things I can feel safe enough with.....that I enjoy enough, but, I am still experimenting.

Your mention of the seemingly large allowance of mayonnaise - reminds me of times when I've been in hospital. My last long stay, I was on what the dieticians described as a "light diet" and again, I gained weight.

But what I was also doing, what I always do - I really don't like the plain steamed vegetables yo u get in hospital food, so I would save up my butter allowance (usually a wrapped pat of butter delivered with my bread, or perhaps breakfast toast) and use it sparingly through the day on my vegetables. I was finding that I was accumulating more butter from day to day, as whenever I put butter on my bread I had always used it sparingly. My mother taught me to always butter right to the crusts, but to make a tiny bit go a long way. Maybe that's why I'm so good at spreading Vegemite out as thin as it needs to be (although it's much more spreadable).

I was doing the same with mayonnaise, and bread - instead of eating a plate of salad at lunch (which was delivered with a slice of bread as well) I spread mayo on the bread instead of butter and then piled on the salad from my plate, to make a half salad sandwich (cut the bread in half first, build the sandwich on half a slice, put the other half back on). I learned to make salad sandwiches back when I was in residential college and the food was horrible - only in a sandwich was the salad edible.

I think a lot of us are now reaping the consequences of being made as children to empty our plates. And yes, the trick these days is to serve on smaller plates. I'm eating out of a one cup ramekin.

Soup - I know what you mean about it not filling you, but some soups are better than others. I've also been finding that as I can have a lot more of the soup, I just keep having more until I'm full.

Have you tried my microwave cooking method for rice? I think it would be better than convection oven for not scorching. One thing, though - we have a plastic ice-cream container which we sit our cooking container in, to catch any boil over. It saves cleaning the glass plate too often. We had to cut away a corner of the ice cream container so the jug handle would fit - I have a tupperware plastic jug with lid, that's what I mostly cook rice in.
For brown rice, I cook as for white rice but allow a little more water and an extra ten minutes' cooking time. I can cook about two cups of brown rice in the microwave using absorption method in 25 minutes. Absorption is slower but keeps all the nutrients and soluble fibre which we would otherwise pour away if we use the rapid boil method.

What is it in soy you are avoiding? Yeast? MSG? You can play with that recipe, but you need to make sure that if you leave out the soy, the salt and flavour is balanced in some other way. There is a delicious restaurant recipe, a favourite of ours, which I want to try and duplicate. It's braised prawns with ginger and shallots. Little or no soy in that, as far as I can tell. I keep a container of frozen peeled green prawns in the freezer, I just grab a handful for whatever recipe I want them for. Sometimes I cook them into an omelette - in my non-stick pan, I need practically no oil at all and I put in with the prawns stuff like onion, red pepper, slivers of ginger, maybe some coriander sprigs, a little chopped garlic and I've also got some shreds of frozen salmon from when I was making sushi for girlfriend's party late last year, I throw a little of that in as well. Very tasty but all permitted, if I only use a smear of oil.

Cheese - for a cheese flavour boost without having to actually use too much cheese (and therefore fat) - I add in some freshly grated parmesan. If I'm making a cheese sauce, I use some cheddar, and several tablespoons of parmesan, plus some salt. It's amazing how a pinch more salt brings out the cheese flavour. You could make my prawn omelette (or another kind) and add the parmesan to the omelette to fool your tastebuds into thinking it's a full-on cheese omelette. Shredded cooked chicken would work well in an omelette with parmesan. Maybe even put in a dollop of your mayo allowance? Serve with some freshly shredded lettuce. Only use one large or two small eggs in the omelette, they should be plenty. I do find them very filling when you pack in other protein as well.

I'm down another half kilo this morning. I'm on my second last capsule in the first pack, which means I've been on this diet now for a calendar month and I've lost five and a half kilos. That's 11 pounds in a month.

No side effects from the pills that I've noticed (apart from poverty!). The stuff has a very bitter taste (from when I've spilled a bit, transferring it into my clear capsules). I suspect if I took it straight, it could make me sick or do some sort of damage to my pharynx area. Or not - but I'm not going to try to find out.

Hmmmm, LOL..I stay away from soy due to salt/sodium, never used much of it anyway....staying away from all mayo and buteer..again, never used much of either. I do not mind the salads I have been makeing, I do not eeat much bread, LOL----my daughter so much wants to bring me home subway, and finally she said well, mom, how about a salad? LOL

I am going to have some mac and cheese, maybe at my one month mark, maybe when I ose a certain weight, I got canned evaporated skim milk today and canned chicken broth low salt no fat and velveeta made with 2% milk......and will use wheat pasta.....LOL.....and then have a half serving.
Parmesean cheese is not quite the same, I guess, for me, cuz I miss the gooey ness of soft gushy cheese? LOL.

I am doing pretty good here, I am being very rigid....very rigid indeed....actually I have had like less than a full serving of meat daily, less than a serving of dairy daily, and less than a serving of fruit daily. the only "fat" I have had is olive oil a couple times when I did not poach or bake the chicken....and the oil in my 10 almonds every other day. I did poach an egg one day and did have that on a peice of multigrain dry toast. BUT I have not been hungry, and have not really missed too much so far besides the cheese. Overall, I AM eating more really, than before, but now it is spread out thru the day at regular intervals, and now it is much healthier foods. I have not used flour, fat, oil, butter, mayo, salt, mostly truly it is simple plain fish or chicken with a lot of garlic, celery, onion, vinegar.....and a little carrots, peppers, lemon, oregano, paprika, nutmeg, a lot of cinnamin, Lots of zuchinni, raw greens, a tiny bit of the brown rice.....my daily 1/4 cup oats.

Oh, the rice? My microwave is very old and low watts, things take forever in it, LOL. I mean a regular oven, not convection, he just put the rice in and some water, covered it, put it in I think 350 for an hour, tightly covered.

I did make spaghetti tonite, used spaghetti squash, and also some whole wheat spaghetti pasta. I mixed in some green beans, zuchinni,onions a very few carrots, bell peppers, and a LOT of garlic into some plain no salt tomato sauce with no high fructose corn syrup in it. I had heard spaghetti squash would be just like the pasta, well, I did not think so and mykids hated dinner, LOL, but, I loved it! LOL. That was quite hard to stop at my half cup of pasta!

I am finding i have to go to grocery often becuz I do not have room for all this fresh vegs! BUt I make it a good exercise and power walk the parking lot and store, LOL (today it has been thunderstorming all day)
I have been grateful I was NOT a snacking person before becuz I am not missing any snack foods. That helps for me, a LOT.

Maybe tomorrow I might experiment with....lentils? I have a feeling my 2 older kids are glad they both work tomorrow, one at Subway and the other at the grocery, LOL- cuz they are not enjoying my meals lately. And gosh darn, NO FAIR! My husband was quite rotund and wouldn't ya know? He ALREADY has a VERY obvious weight loss going, and HE has been doubling what I eat AND snacking! NON FAIR! LOL.
I DID like thg ginger, put some on my salad this afternoon. It is kind of lemony, I think? I am also considering getting out my horseradish, I do like horseradish. I am hoping some of my symptoms that popped up today back off....I was thinking about maybe taking my son skateing. His birthday is also coming and I am thinking of asking him if he wants to take 1-2 friends either swimming or skateing, and I could sneak in, too. I had thought I read the ginger would help with those symptoms, but maybe the barometric pressure over rode any positive effects of the ginger.

I wish I could say WOW I FEEL ever so much better eating this way.......LOL......I do not think I FEEL much different. LOL (Maybe that will come with time?) I am frustrated the symptoms popped up- and maybe I should not blame the barometric pressure, I dropped the pred a little more (prearranged with rheumy previously)

OK I wanted to say to you, Marg? I am thinking it might be easier for me, becuz it is my warming up weather season, and everything is all "new and fresh" etc......easier, in my opinion to start something new now, esier to get nice produce, easier to get outside.

Something else I wanted to share- a visual- LOL. After I weighed myself thismorning, I went and got that amount of butter and margerine sticks from fridge and told my kids "imagine this all stuck to me all over, this is how much I lost so far" LOL- they were more impressed than I was..but- it is something to keep in mind, just HOW much that REALLY is. and how it LOOKED attached to me! (or you)

It's a really god way of doing it, to actually set out that much in groceries of some sort, to picture how much you're losing. We had ads for a weight loss program on TV a few years ago, they showed the woman carrying two string bags of potatoes and as she put them down on the bench she said, "I was carrying around this much extra weight, everywhere I went. Imagine climbing stairs carrying all this! No wonder I was breathless!"

Mind you, there are tricks to looking good, making yourself look slimmer than you really are. For the wedding husband & I went to just as I started on my diet, I bought myself a pair of those really stretchy (and very tight) long leg knickers. They really hold me in, so the bulges are smoothed out.

Also, you see in those photos, how the women trying to show how slim they are are standing partly turned from the camera, one leg in front of the other, knee bent. And in the "before" shots, they're standing front on, wearing the dowdiest, baggiest clothes to make themselves look even bigger.

I've mentioned the CSIRO diet book - I went into more detail on Nomad's thread. It's currently the top authority on diets in Australia because it's the output from our major scientific organisation. They've really researched not just diets but human metabolism and found some interesting things. First, men lose weight more easily than women, so that will be why your husband is losing faster than you. It's got a guide for helping you calculate your energy expenditure per day, so you can tailor a diet plan to your own calorie needs. The book says there are three factors to how many calories you burn per day.
First, your metabolic rate. Low, with us. But we still burn calories just by living and breathing.
Second, the energy we burn when we eat. Third, the energy we burn when we exercise.

Here is the calculation:

Women
655.1 + (9.56 x your weight in kilograms) + (1.85 x your height in cm) - (4.68 x your age in years). Multiply this by another factor based on your activity level. For us (sedentary) that factor is 1.2.

To lose weight you then should aim to eat 500 to 1000 calories less per day, than the number you calculated.

This info is from "the CSIRO total wellbeing diet" by Dr Manny Noakes and Dr Peter Clifton (hey, I quoted from it so I must give attribution).

Another important thing this book said - diets with more protein are more successful. Yes, cut back on fat, yes, cut out refined carbs, but you should have more protein. It says we should eat 2 x units (100 g serves) of lean red meat (beef, lamb or veal) 4 times a week, 2 x units of fish twice a week and 2 x units chicken (skinned, boneless) once a week. Vegetarians can substitute but need to really do it carefully.
A summary from somewhere else - we should have two units of lean protein for dinner each day, and one unit at lunchtime. We can substitute 2 eggs for one unit, or a serve of low-fat dairy.

That's a lot more protein than you're eating now. Even if you eat less than that, in proportion this is a diet higher in lean protein than most diets have been in the past. But this diet is based on years of research and experimentation.

Fruit - one serve a day, max. I do admit I sometimes have a second serve of fruit. And loads of vegetables, some as much as I want.

So do the calculation on yourself (and on husband too, for interest) and see how your results tally with the calorie intake your doctor wants you to stick to.

I also have fussy eaters, I'm finding myself eating separate meals to the others in a lot of cases. It seems to be easier. For example, last night I made risotto for the others but I wouldn't dare eat any myself because it's white arborio rice, plus butter. I didn't put any cheese in this batch (I forgot) so it's not quite as bad as it could have been, but one serve would totally blow my diet out of the water.

Another important thing - if we're dieting this strictly, we must take supplements to make up for the nutrients we're not getting. I'm taking cranberry caps (for my constant bladder infection problem); calcium with Vitamin D (we don't get enough Vitamin D because we're not out in the sun enough); multivitamin loaded with B & C, alternating with one also loaded with Vitamin E.

The recipes in this book really push for flavour. I'll rummage through and find one that uses ginger. There is a ginger soy marinade listed, it's different to my teriyaki marinade. This one uses quarter cup soy, teaspoon grated ginger, 2 teaspoons honey, 1 tablespoon lemon juice. It's for 800 g (eight serves) of meat or fish so that amount of soy gets spread over a fair bit. marinate for up to 24 hours. You then cook the meat however you want to. Your family should like it.

As you said, with your summer coming up you will find losing weight much easier. I do tend to crave 'comfort food' during colder weather. Big bowls of buttery mashed potato, using leftover mash to make gnocchi, lots of buttery risotto. Not this winter. I'll cook it for the others, though.

Maybe you and I can adapt recipes, so we can use some ingredients in common. For example, bolognese meat sauce can be turned into tacos, spaghetti bolognese, nachos (difficult child 3 style), lasagne and chilli con carne. You & I could have the chilli con carne without the pasta but with the beans, or as tacos while everyone else has lasagne or spaghetti bolognese.

I'm glad you're buying a lot of fresh ingredients. It's fun, it's good exercise, it should work out cheaper (as long as it all gets eaten) and you will learn many more new recipes. Buying more supplies every few days is good - it means it's all fresh.

ug the flareing that was minor yesterday is much worse today. I am looking and looking at diet journal....
Maybe I should add in more protein. I have not had any beef at all. I can now see how people can turn obssesssive, etc. I want success.
I had seen a calorie use calculation just recently.....will try out the math.
I think becuz of my height and build, even my docs are usually surprised at my weight.....I never dressed to hide it, I have no fashion sense, LOL. My arms and legs have always been slender (from waiting tables and being nurses aid and nurse at least 16 hours per day) I am well endowed on top, and I think that camoflagued(sp) things, maybe? at least somewhat. I have no hips to speak of nor any bottom, do not even wear womens slacks becuz they look ridiculous on me flapping at the hips and bottom.

Yes, I have been doing some seperate cooking for the kids, (always have, really) Plus they also do some of their own.....
Your vegamite, I know you have in the past described it, and IIRC I did not think I would like it much, but, I was wondering LOL...how to pronounce it, is the "G" hard or soft?
I think I am gonna go ice some body parts, if it is the wheat doing this, not sure what I am going to do. I also amnot sure how I am gonna be able to do my food prep this way today, chopping my vegs......I am frustrated, hafta go FIND a silver lining. LOL. (can't check blood sugar, have no test meter, but I cab check blood pressure and weight, at least I THINK I am able to check BiPolar (BP)) If the weight and BiPolar (BP) show improvement, I might tolerate the extreme hand flare currently going on, and I need to give my "better" hand a break, here. LOL. I am wondering if due to the less "bad" foods going in - maybe I amnow more sensitive to any that might be to blame for the rheumatic symptoms? Nightshades never were a problem before.....and I seldom ate much wheat based items. The thunder and lightening are supposed to move out today.

OK next question, whne you write the margeurite, I know how to say that, LOL, but when you sign off Marg....is it Marg with hard G or soft? Sorry, LOL-I know it really makes no difference really, cuz um....well, I suppose it just doesn't in writing, but when I think of you in myhead, I never was sure if it is Marg soft g or marg hard g. LOL.

I checked all my breakfasty things and wound up haveing plain brown rice and water with cinnamin and 1/3 of a fresh pear for brkfst. (made in microwave, LOL) I wanted to stay away from wheat. Far away.....LOL. It seemed weird to me, but it did taste good, even if it was weird. I was gonna have a poached egg on it instead of the pear, but, could not manage to handle the egg this morning. Thought the egg could be some protein.
Maybe I will put some fish on my lunch salad (providing I can chop up my veggies) Is raw fresh ginger good? maybe I can put that with my vinegar and garlic on my lunch veggies? I am gonna stay away from the spinach, too. I think. Maybe I will grill some chicken for dinner. maybe even outside. (if the storms go, altho it is not real warm out) I have some brussel sprouts and maybe some red beets?
I think I assumed we all already get ample protein here .LOL......typical diet anyway, might have too much, but maybe it will help since I have been so extreme. Feels weird to be eating what feels like SO much more, but knowing it is so much less of the less unhealthy stuff before compared to now. Um....I mean. grrr, LOL....i got rid of the unhealthy stuff, um.....grr....um......LOL. I am makeing what I do eat count more now, in healthy ways......um....LOL.

well, at least for now my feet and legs are fine, today...and if the rain backs off and my street is not too flooded, maybe I can at least wander around on sidewalks. I sure hope our sun comes out today!!

OK good news is-----a loss of 7 pounds remained constant now for 3 days, so I feel safe in "celebrating" a 7 pound loss so far! WOO HOO! Alas, todays blood pressure is NOT as good as the last few days, I am attributing that to pain. I am supposed to give myself my shot today, but, I am not sure my hands are going to cooperate, and noone here has ever done it for me, and they all have to not even see the box it comes in, lest they panic and husband passes out cold and oldest difficult child begins to tremble and disassociate.

Oh supplements, yes, I take folic acid becuz methotrexate use protocol does call for folic acid to be taken, and I take vit D and calcium due to prednisone, and I do alternate a multi vit and a B complex, the multi has IIRC extra zinc and magnesium, and GP requested I take Omega 3s (? tohelp triglycerides? but IIRC it also supposedly helps rhuematic illness? plus I am fairly sure it might be helpful for mood disorders?) so yeah, I do have supplements, too. At the moment I am hoping none of my hand tendons rupture. GR. (have had that occur in past due to this wretched illness) and I am hateing that the flare up implies inflammatory situation internlaly, as well, which will increase blood pressure....which is so bad for heart etc. Frustrates me to be trying so actively at this time to do what is good and right and have my body ignoreing what I am tryng to do, LOL. (altho maybe my body is trying to say hey lady, you did THIS wrong) I suppose the hard truth is some of this is simply payback time for a life of .........ignorant bliss? LOL, eating what I wanted when I wanted, sleeping only when I crashed (following hypomania) etc. Well, now that sounds like I am taking all the blame, LOL, nah, I am gonna blame some genetics and ??? whatever, as well, LOL.

ANyway, I AM excited about the 7 pounds. Soooooo I am gonna focus on THAT for now. LOL.
Do you find anything yet about fatty liver, and what dietary changes might help? SO far all I find is um.lowering cholsetrol? Getting triglycerides down?

The breakfast sounds - interesting. I'll stick to my muesli. Have you tried muesli? You can eat it straight from the pack with milk, or cook it up with milk in the microwave, like porridge.

I have to make up another batch of my oat-free muesli in the morning, I have less than one serve left.

I was watching Oprah today, it was another show about dieting, they were talking about Body Mass Index.

I HATE the way doctors assume that BMI is the perfect yardstick by which they assess us all. And I hate the way the goalposts keep changing. I'm in trouble now, because I dieted too much when I was younger, often when I probably shouldn't have. And I made mental notes at the time of what triggered my compulsion to diet.

When I was 18 I had my appendix out. I'd been feeling sick for several months with a grumbling appendix, I'd not been eating much and was probably losing weight. When the nurse weighed me (for the anaesthetic dose) I was 62 Kg. She tutted, commented that I was heavy. So after my operation, I began my first diet. When I plug those figures into the charts in my CSIRO book, using the formula of your weight divided by the square of your height, I get a BMI of 23, which is in the normal range. "Normal" is BMI of 18.5 to 24.9. I WAS NOT OVERWEIGHT!

Then some years later, I was 26 and wanting to start a family. We had medicals at work, we were processed through like sausages. The doctor weighed me and I remember - I was 65 Kg. "Overweight," he told me. I shouldn't begin a family until I lost the weight, he said. Calculating now - BMI of 24.2. I WAS NOT OVERWEIGHT!

I did gain weight with each pregnancy but with an active job I managed to keep my weight down fairly well. Then I became ill and was unable to do the heavy physical work. I was also studying some more. In one of my lectures I remember being told that for calculation purposes, the average human male is assumed to weigh 70 Kg and to have 8 litres of blood in his body. I remember thinking I was getting a bit close to the 70 Kg, as a woman. That would have given me a BMI of 26 - just inside the overweight range, which is 25.0 to 29.9. I was now overweight, but after three kids and increasingly sedentary, it was understandable.

Then I got medically retired and found other activities. I did volunteer charity work. After 7 years I got pregnant again. This time I was not able to exercise. Other problems followed me. It was a difficult pregnancy. I had to find a way to get iron into me, when I couldn't take supplements and my levels were dropping. I ended up eating Milo, a kids drink supplement that contains iron in a form I could tolerate. I had to eat a cupful of this powder a day, to get the amount of iron I was supposed to have. But still the levels dropped. Finally the doctor put me in hospital on a drip to give me iron that way. I gave away my Milo tin the next day.

But Milo is loaded with sugar, and it put weight on me. After difficult child 3 was born, I dieted. I ate lots of muesli (with oats) and after a few months developed a problem with my health - the problem which later turned out to be due to the oats in the muesli.

I can't recall what I weighed, I think it was about 80 Kg. At about that time my liver test results were bad and I had to see a specialist. I know difficult child 3 was still in a stroller, so he was less than 18 months old. I know I didn't weigh more than 80 Kg then. The doctor told me that my liver tests were bad because of my weight, "you are extremely obese," he told me. I had to lose weight.
So, given my weight was 80 Kg at the time (I'm fairly sure it was less) - BMI calculates at 29. I WAS NOT OBESE! And certainly not EXTREMELY obese!

Since then my weight has been creeping up. For a while I would be able to hold it, but interestingly, it was when I tried to diet to lose weight that my weight would eventually climb higher than it had been. Not being able to exercise, in fact getting increasingly restricted in exercise, was a major factor.

I was on a low fat diet from before I had difficult child 3. I stayed on a low fat diet until less than four years ago, when I began the Atkins diet. I lost 10 Kg. But I had to really restrict my intake impossibly, and I found I couldn't do it and stay low-fat. After 10 months I stopped the diet - we were on holidays, it just was not possible. I gained the weight back in six months. And again, a little bit more.

Apart from times I try to diet with extreme food restriction (like now) my weight tends to be fairly stable, it has just crept up over the years. But I accept now, that at 97 Kg (as I was before this diet - the last 2 Kg had been a recent addition) I was now overweight.
Checking the BMI for me before this diet - BMI was 36. You are obese if your BMI is over 29.9. You are extremely obese if your BMI is over 39.9.
I WAS STILL NOT EXTREMELY OBESE!

I'm now 91 Kg. That's a BMI of 33. I'm getting there.

But to look at me - I don't look that big. I was visiting a friend this afternoon. True, she is shorter than me, but she is much bigger. Her clothes are loose on me. And she weighs about 70 Kg.

Maybe if I had not for years been dieting to lose the weight problem which in fact I did not have, I wouldn't have the weight problem, the insulin resistance and the liver problem I have now. I am angry. But I am trying to channel that anger into actively losing weight now.

The gastroenterologist (and all info I've been able to find online) says that to begin to decrease the fatty content of my liver, and to also begin to step back from diabetes Type II, even a few pounds weight lost can make a difference. I got the impression that I would need to have a BMI in the extremely obese range for him to prescribe the Reductil, but because of my liver being in dire straits he was able to bend the rules for me. He also said, "You're not big enough yet for me to recommend lap band surgery."

That horrified me. I doubt I'm a good risk for surgery anyway, but the thought that he would just wait until I WAS big enough, and then operate, has also given me the drive to lose weight now.

So, some pounds/kilos lost, more to go. Roll on the next seven!

Marg (pronounced as if you have just shortened my name, as in "Margaret" without the "-aret"). To pronounce it as "Marj" I'd spell it as "Marge". Does that help?)

Wow, it sounds like it has been really hard.
I never tried to lose weight, but except when preg, I have remained fairly constant all my life, for the most part. When preg I lost weight. I was not sick and felt great, but, just lost weight. THe pred added a lot on kind of fast, but then summer came and the pred had given me back enough abilities, I found my activity level increased enough and I leveled off. My one brother is built like I am, my sister used to be model thin, not as tall as me, but she ballooned out badly at 30. Her twin is diabetic, he has always been right on average. Our youngest brother was quite obese as a young child, joined WW in HS and lost over 100 pounds and holds it at his new weight- he NEVER eats away from home, not anything. He also works out at a gym daily. My weight stayed at 190 for a very long time. The pred pushed it up to 230. When I beagn to change my eating here a couple weeks ago, it was 193. When I was haveing my daughters, I remember haveing a weight 172, but, it did not look so good on me and did not feel so good, either. I am not sure WHY, seems to me it should have looked great, but I looked haunted in pictures of me from then. That was my lowest adult weight. ( I am 5'8")

Oh, I forgot to make clear - when you calculate BMI, you need to use height IN METRES. So 164 cm should be calculated as 1.64 metres. Or in your case - 5' 8" is 173 cm, or 1.73 metres.

Back with imperial measures, Australians used to measure weight in stones and pounds, rather than just pounds.

193 lbs converts to about 87.3 Kg. You've lost 7 lbs, so you would now be 186 lbs or just over 85.5 Kg. That gives you a BMI of 28.2, which according to the charts in my CSIRO book, puts you well under the obese limit, into the overweight range. So you're definitely doing better than I have been! So if you're not losing as fast as I have been, don't be too hard on yourself. I have more to lose, which makes your loss not so slow (proportionately, for you) after all.

Prednisone tends to put on fluid rather than fat. That's one of the good things about weight gain on prednisone - you lose it easily without dieting, once you come off the stuff (or even begin to wean off).

One kilogram is 2.2 lbs. A metre is 10% longer than a yard. A cubic centimetre weighs one gram (and is 1 ml in volume). Because husband & I were going through school as our country was preparing to change over from metric to imperial, plus we didn't have calculators back then, we learned to convert from metric to imperial and back again, with mental arithmetic. As a result I have all these now useless conversion tables in my head.

I SHOULD be much faster with metric.....had to use it in nurseing school......and have been helping my son becuz they do teach it and use it some here in our schools. But I get lazy and fall back. LOL.

It struck me when I worked in the nurseing homes, people there are MUCH smaller than people now, much shorter and weigh much less. As people now begin to fill the nurseing homes, it is going to be quite a job......transferring us larger people, taller people. We have a couple, our friends, the man is like 7 foot 2 or something and wife just an inch shorter.
He has MS and it hit him hard and fast 13 years ago...and he was entirely bedbound quickly. Recently he had leg amuptation....she wanted to know if I would do private duty hmome care of him. I had to tell her no, and had to warn her he is simply so tall, so heavy, she is going to have a very hard time finding anyone to do home care especially since she still has not gotten a mechanical lift to use on him. Me and my sibs are all much taller than our parents were. My husband is also much much taller than his mother was. I think my son is gonna be taller than me and husband, but, my girls are much shorter than me and husband. BUT my girls weight is not light. difficult child weighs less than me, but, she is so much shorter (even son is now taller than her)
I think it is going to create some serious problems in the nurseing homes in the years to come.

No docs ever said anything to me about my weight......BUT more and more I am now thinking they simply do not want to see me at all- becuz of me smoking? Maybe they assume since I smoke, I won't care about anything or something like that? BUT until very recently, my triglycerides and blood sugar and blood pressure liver enzymes etc all were always good.

We are not haveing good success getting the pred now much. :-( In spite of the other medications for long term that I now use. The other medications have been on board as long as the pred.....but they are not taking over the job of the flares etc very well. The pred was supposed to just ride me thru until the other medications worked well. (I am not sure I am explaining this quite right)

Ah well, it is a new day....Pouring rain, flooded streets, snow forecast for tonite and tomorrow.....so while I DID go out in yard yesterday and day before, I do not think that will be possible now. :-( Seems much easier to stick to better eating when I can go outside away from kitchen and be in sunshine.

The brown rice was good for breakfast, LOL- I enjoyed it, especially with the cinnamin, but, it was even more filling than the oatmeal! LOL- so I ate less....

I think I may have forgotten my main issue along the way (already!) the weight loss is a bonus side effect, but really I need to work becuz of the blood sugar-insulin resistance issue and blood pressure and to get the fatty liver in better shape? But, the only way I had to even begin to guess if I was getting towards the goal at all is the weight loss.

I got a blood glucose meter today. Now I just hafta work with it and figure it out, LOL! I am hoping it will help me keep better track of what affects me how.....

Earlier today I let difficult child talk me into eating half of her 6" subway, no cheese, no mayo...it was a turkey one with vinegar, and had a lot of lettuce and cucs on it (and other vegs) , and I took the bread apart so only had half the bread that came on my half.....ROFL.....so- it was from the nutritional info they give us, approx 150 or so calories, and I was surprised to find it made me satisfied.....it turned out to be a nice lunch. I used brown rice to make something with dinner tonite, tonite was lemon chicken....and tons of fresh green beans also lightly lemoned.....I put the rice in oven with water and a few carrot shreds (for color) and onion and celery and a little fat free sodium free chicken stock and baked the heck outta it. I really liked it. I am finding many new things I had never tried before-----tomorrow with our salmon, I am considering lentils. I also cut some celery sticks ahead of time and soaked them in vinegar --I enjoyed those before dinner.